Freed from Gravity (Bound and Freed #2)

Chapter 27

Twenty-Seven

ALLETTE

Princess Leeri shoves back the curtain of her dark violet hair and darts a glance toward the entrance.

So this is my mate’s wife, the woman who has been given everything I’ve ever wanted.

Even dirty and with dark bruises beneath her eyes, she is still one of the most stunning females I’ve ever seen, which is both infuriating and depressing. How could Senan choose me over someone like this? She’s so perfect .

Jeston holds out his hands like he’s trying to keep a wild animal at bay and takes a cautious step toward the cage. “Please don’t scream. We’re here to rescue you.”

The princess’s eyes narrow and her lips flatten, but she nods. The simple dress she wears hangs off her thin frame, the skirt falling over her bare feet when she rises.

Jeston turns to me. “Give me the key.”

I withdraw the key from where it hides within the twisted fabric of my sash.

We need to free the princess, but that’s not our only mission. Kyffin isn’t the only Vale prince who needs to be saved.

Stepping back, I clutch the key to my chest.

“Allette, please. Give me the key.” Jeston’s eyes search mine, panic tinging his voice.

“Allette?” the princess gasps, her Nimbiss accent harsh and grating against my ears. Her ice-blue eyes widen as her head swings toward me. “ You’re Senan’s Allette?”

Hearing my love’s name on her lips makes me want to rip out her hair. She looks down her nose at me as if I am beneath her. Without me, we wouldn’t even be here.

“Give me the damn key,” Jeston demands.

How can I free Senan’s wife knowing her claim to him is a hundred times more valid than mine?

Remember Prince Kyffin.

None of this is for the princess, but for the littlest prince.

I am going to give Jeston the key, but first… “I want the antidote.”

His expression darkens, but he stalks over to the safe and dials in the combination. I don’t ask how he knows it and he doesn’t offer an explanation. The lock releases and the door swings wide, revealing vials of every color.

I step toward the translucent rainbow of glass and liquid. How are there so many shades? This cannot all be stardust…can it? What else might Cadoc be mining and creating in this terrible lair?

It’s a shame I’ll never know. “Which ones do I need?”

Glass clinks as Jeston sorts through the vials, collecting a handful of light blue ones from the very back. He gives them to me and then waits with his hand extended.

“I want five more.” Better to have too much antidote than too little.

Sighing, Jeston withdraws an additional five vials. “The key, Allette.”

I walk toward the cage, doing my best not to compare myself to the future Queen of Nimbiss. Even in the clothes of a peasant, she still manages to look regal.

She will leave this place and return to her castle, living out the rest of her days surrounded in luxury. Meanwhile, I’ll be here, praying she never seeks out her wayward husband.

I won’t let her have him.

Senan Vale is mine—he always has been. There is only one way to ensure that he remains that way. “If I agree to let you out, I want your word that you will file for an annulment the moment you reach Nimbiss.”

The princess stands taller, her eyes igniting. “I want to be married to that wretch as much as he wants to be married to me.”

What she wants doesn’t change the facts: As long as the two of them are wed, he is tied to her. Those ties must be severed. “Your word, princess.”

“You have it,” she clips. “The moment I reach my father’s castle, I will file the paperwork.”

Can I trust her? At this stage, I don’t have much of a choice. It’s either believe her or leave her in the hands of these monsters, sealing Prince Kyffin’s fate as well.

Reluctantly, I place the key in Jeston’s outstretched palm. He unlocks the door, and the heavy iron bars swing open with an ominous creak . The princess falls into his arms with a broken sob.

“It’s all right. You’re going to be all right,” he murmurs, smoothing her dark hair back from her face. She clings to him like a lifeline, and I feel a little guilty for considering leaving her behind.

But only a little.

I carefully tuck the small vials into my sash, ensuring each one is properly secured to keep them from dropping out.

Jeston murmurs something low and quiet to the princess before lifting her into his arms and cradling her close. Tears glisten in her eyes as her head drops to the crook of his neck.

I cannot wait for this awful night to end. “How do we get out?”

“When we leave the office, take a right.”

We hurry on silent feet back up the stairs to the office and out into the hallway. I turn right as instructed, but then shouts erupt from down the corridor. It sounds like they’re coming this way.

With a curse, Jeston adjusts his hold on the princess and nudges his chin toward a black door at the opposite end of the hallway. “We need to take the staircase to the roof.”

The bloody roof? Doesn’t he remember what’s up there?

More shouting jumpstarts my trembling limbs. Seeing no other option, I sprint toward that doorway and throw the barrier aside. Jeston sets the princess on her feet, but keeps an arm around her waist, helping her up the stairs.

Into the darkness we go, the curving staircase growing more compact the higher we climb. More bellowing sounds from below. At the very top, another door awaits.

A door that refuses to budge.

“Open it,” Jeston hisses.

Why didn’t I think of that? Probably because it won’t open. I throw my shoulder into it, and the thing gives a little. I ram my shoulder again, opening it a little more.

Cool air rushes through the gap. I make the mistake of taking a deep breath. Stars…it reeks like the cottage in the human realm.

Like death.

One more hard shove and the hinges give. The door scrapes open, and I tumble onto a flat rooftop blanketed in a thick layer of fog.

Fog and pikes.

Pikes topped with arms and legs and… heads .

The princess stumbles out, and when she straightens, her face blanches. Jeston closes the door swiftly, appearing unfazed by the macabre graveyard. I scan for a ladder or a nearby rooftop but there doesn’t seem to be a way down. “What now?”

Jeston cards a hand through his silver hair.

The princess blinks at the decaying body parts, her complexion as gray as the fog.

Wait a minute. She can save us. “Call your wings and fly us down.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” Her skin is still tanned, so she must have some sunlight left in her veins. Unless… “Did they take them?”

Her gaze drops to where her bare feet peek from beneath her skirts. “No.”

Jeston stalks between pikes, stepping carefully over the puddles of entrails and blood. “She has no wings, so we need to find another way off this roof.”

I remember seeing the princess with wings on more than one occasion. “She does have wings. White ones.”

The princess winces. “The wings you saw were prosthetics commissioned by my father.”

Wait… the Princess of Nimbiss is Tuath? Dammit . How the hell are we going to escape this bloody rooftop now?

“How do we get down?” For all we know, Cadoc could be on his way right now. Hell, he could be combing his tower as we speak. He could be climbing the stairs.

Jeston presses his fingers to his temples. “Give me a minute to think.”

We don’t have a bloody minute.

He’s going to find us and kill us.

A thump rattles across the rooftop. A shadow emerges from the fog. Wings flare from the shadow’s back as the man steps forward. There’s a flash of silver by his thigh. A blade .

I assumed Cadoc was Tuath. Apparently, I was wrong.

Then I see the color of his wings.

Black.

Aeron Vale is here.

Relief spills through my chest. Say what you want about his scowls and lack of manners, Senan’s brother has impeccable timing.

“I am so happy to see you.” That is until I notice the large crimson stain spreading over his abdomen.

“I would’ve been here sooner,” Aeron grits out, clutching his middle, “but three men attacked me in the alley.”

“Are you all right?”

“I will be. Unfortunately, this means I’ll only be able to carry one of you at a time.”

How I wish I could tell him to take me. To take me away from this nightmare and return me to my prince. Unfortunately, that cannot happen. “Take the princess first.”

Aeron stalks toward Princess Leeri, lifting her into his arms. His wings flare, and he takes off into the clouds. He mustn’t bring her far, because he returns a few minutes later, landing on the far side of the roof.

I run toward him, then come to a skidding halt. This man’s wings aren’t black.

They’re red.

Cadoc Carew isn’t Tuath after all.

The man’s evil grin is a flash in the fog. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, Wynn. What a pleasant surprise.”

Shit . I stumble behind a hairy arm, the fingers at the end bent and broken. Cadoc’s gaze tracks down to the glowing blue vials inside my sash, and his nostrils flare. “Looks like you figured out what you wanted after all. Didn’t anyone teach you that it’s not nice to take things that don’t belong to you?”

Leaning down, he catches the base of a pike topped with a head, the gray skin melting off the skull. He gives the thing a shake, and the head pops off, landing with a wet splat next to his boot. “I wish you would have come to me. We could’ve reached an agreement.”

I grab for the closest pike, intent on defending myself, but there’s too much blood coating the wood. Dammit . I can’t get a decent grip.

I swipe my hands down my thighs, leaving dark smudges on silk and skin. The next pike isn’t slippery but refuses to budge.

I continue inching back toward the edge of the roof, praying for Aeron to reappear.

Cadoc is so focused on me, that he doesn’t seem to notice Jeston creeping closer… or the pike in his fist.

It’s up to me to distract the bastard so that Jeston can run him through.

“I would never bargain with a monster like you,” I spit.

“Strong words coming from a woman at the wrong end of a pike.” Cadoc lifts the pike like a spear, a twisted smile on his face.

The breath leaves my lungs, bracing for impact.

He whirls, driving the pike through Jeston’s stomach. My accomplice collapses to the ground with a wail, blood gushing from the wound, spraying over the rooftop.

Cadoc pins Jeston with a boot on his chest. “Jeston, Jeston, Jeston.” He clicks his tongue. “What would your poor mother say if she saw you now?” He yanks the pike from Jeston’s torso, and my friend lets out a rattling gasp.

With Jeston’s blood dripping from the end of the pike, Cadoc turns back to me. “Such a waste,” he mutters, adjusting his grip on the wood.

My heels hit the edge of the slate tiles.

I try to call to my magic, but my element is as silent as the air around us.

Even if my power decided to cooperate, there’s no way I’d be faster than Cadoc with his wings.

I need to stand my ground.

I need to fight.

I lunge for a pike holding a skewered arm, catching the dismembered wrist and tugging the limb free, throwing it aside. Gripping the wood in both hands, I yank until I hear a crack.

Only the top breaks off.

When I turn, Cadoc is there, his pike aimed at my heart. He lunges, and I pivot. The spear flies through the air, tumbling into nothing. His hand snaps out, wrapping around my throat, choking me. Lifting me off my feet.

Blackness speckles the edge of my vision.

Senan’s face flashes before my eyes, wearing his roguish smile.

His laughter fills my ears. My heart.

I’m coming, my love.

I’ll be there soon.

Splinters pierce my palm as my fingers tighten around the wood. I stab the stake into Cadoc’s forearm. His howl of rage floods the air. His grip loosens. Vanishes.

A scream tears from my throat as I slip through the fog, flailing for the edge of the rooftop, my fingers scraping nothing but mist. My body drops through the clouds, plummeting toward the cobblestones. Darkness flashes in my peripherals and a pair of arms band around my waist, ripping me sideways through an alley.

A hand clamps over my mouth, stifling my scream. “ Quiet ,” Aeron hisses, darting between two buildings and pressing me against the hard plaster.

I listen to the ominous flap of Cadoc’s wings as he searches for us, the cacophony of his vicious curses rising in the darkness.

A sob climbs my throat. I swallow it down, closing my eyes and envisioning my prince’s face, praying Cadoc cannot hear my thundering heart.

The pressure against my lips begins to ease. Aeron drops his hand, peering from between the buildings. “I think he’s gone. Stay here—remain hidden. I’ll go back for Jeston.”

In all my panic, I completely forgot. “Jeston is… He’s d-dead.”

The world starts to spin, my legs threatening to give out as terror grips my heart. We managed to save the princess and retrieve the antidote…

But at what cost?